Feb 29, 2012

A tropical green smoothie made with pineapple, shredded coconut and bananas, then blended with spinach, light coconut milk and Greek yogurt. High in Vitamin A, B-6, C, Manganese and fiber.

I've been really addicted to green smoothies since I first tried them, some of you may remember the Skinny Green Monster made with spinach bananas and peanut butter... so good! I got my friends and family members hooked in it too! It's amazing how you can't taste the spinach, and every time I have one I try making it different.

This tropical version has been on my mind for some time, I just love the combination of pineapple and coconut, and the sweet bits of shredded coconut give each sip an Island flair. I've also added mango, flax seeds, papaya would be good too! You can leave the yogurt out and add a bit more coconut milk to make it dairy-free. Enjoy!!

156 comments
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I make my own version of the Green Monster - I switch banana for mango or pineapple (mango is the better of the two). This smoothie sounds delicious. I love the idea of the shredded coconut. I will make it tomorrow.

I just made a similar Greenie this morning. Pineapple, pineapple juice, and banana. It was delicious! I'll have to try it with coconut. Any recommendations for coconut milk? The stuff in the can looks awful! I use it for cooking (your Thai Coconut Curry dish) but I don't think I could drink it. Thanks Gina!

First I tried the Coconut Dream that is in the container same as rice dream but I found out it has more sweetner added and adhesives so I bought the canned stuff. Just a bit less sweet just as good! And canned is cheaper! Love this smoothie sooo much!

Sounds good to me, really tasty :)) And I just received my blender from ebay :)) Only one question - do you think that it is a good idea to mix spinach with pineapple, bananas? (vegetable vs fruit enzymes) ?

absolutly! Think about if you ever ordered a hawaiaan wrap! Even a little parsley or cilantro goes good together! I just got my new Blendtec, and trying to figure out all the how too's..as I am a new green smoothy gal..

I use coconut water. I haven't tried the coconut milk. I just imagine it to be a little thicker with the milk. Before I started using coconut water I was using pineapple juice but really needed to cut back on the sugar! It's pretty tasty and super nutritional!

I love your Green monster smoothie and will be trying this tomarrow on my son!! I have to tell you what a life saver you've been. My 21 month old son is borderline anemic and he hates anything green right now. However, He loves the monster smoothie and is the only thing green I can get him to eat. So Thank you sooo much for the great recipes.

This lovely green color makes me think of St Patrick's Day! When are your St Patrick's Day recipes coming?? I hope they include skinny Irish Potato Candy!! yum! my fav. all of the recipes say do NOT use low fat cream cheese so I am scared to try it. I always think "What Would Gina Do?" but I just don't know!

Irish potato candy is sooo good! it doesn't have potatoes in it it is cream cheese coconut powdered sugar and butter and you roll it into little potato shaped balls and then roll it in cinnamon & sugar so they look like little potatoes. they're delicious and super easy! great for kids too. some people leave the coconut out and it is fabulous either way.

I always eat spinach, but never thought to put it in a smoothie until I tried your other green monster recipe...pretty good & a quicker way to get that spinach in. Thanks for all the great recipes...tonight I made the Pasta Bean Fagioli soup and it was delish. My super picky kid even ate some & said it was good!

Oh My Gosh, I have been enjoying the same thing (just without the yogurt and coconut milk). I used unsweetened shredded coconut, banana, pineapple, spinach and a splash of orange juice. It is so delicious!

I'm so excited to see this recipe on here today! I have a ton of spinach I've been tempted to use in a green smoothie-- but most of the recipes I keep finding seem anything BUT healthy. I'm glad you've found that the spinach is undetectable... I was worried that I would be able to taste it without all the fruit that others seem to be adding! I love that this is a recipe that you can experiment with... the note about mango sounds so delicious. Thanks for the new idea to try this weekend.

Very True. I was very skeptical at first, but I am horrible about getting in my veggies so I thought- what the heck I'll give it a try- worst case I don't like it and throw it out. I have all of the ingredients anyways. Try it- you will be surprised!

I've been wanting to try out the green monster smoothies for a while now and your recipe looks delicious! Any suggestions on blenders (something not super expensive, but won't crap out after 3 uses)...I've tried using a food processor, but it doesn't work.

I just have a Gourmet Rocket Blender from Shopko and it seems to work great. I've had it for awhile now. Also love that it is already in the cup so I don't have to dirty a bunch of dishes. I hear the NINJA is amazing but haven't wanted to spend the money on one yet.

Any way to make these ahead of time? My husband sleeps in later than i do and i would love this for breakfast but i don't want to use the blender in the morning. I tried a green monster smoothie frozen into ice cubes & it tasted...ok. It was a bit grainy. Any ideas?

I make mine the same just using almond milk and I throw in a couple of frozen strawberries. It's a little darker green but love the mixture of strawberries, bananas, and pineapple. Never thought to put in coconut or use coconut milk will have to try that- LOVE coconut. Thanks Gina! Love your recipe- you are always my go to gal.

My favorite green smoothie (as of this morning!): frozen banana, mango, pineapple; spinach, Silken tofu (1/4 cup or so), date, water. Dates are great for sweetening, and the tofu is a good substitute for yogurt if you avoid dairy.

Try freezing the extra in a baggie (seal and lay flat in the freezer). This should help lock in the good flavor and the enzymes from the fresh ingredients and keep the taste from getting bitter like it will in the fridge. When you want to use the rest, take it out and re-blend.

I have been making green smoothies every morning for about 3 months and I LOVE them I have always been using spinach exclusively, but this morning I also added kale in with the spinach. It worked great. I think it may take me a little bit longer to use kale without the spinach because it does give it a "greener" taste. But mostly, the fruits that are added to it mask most of the green taste! Valerie

If you freeze the kale before using it then you won't notice the "green" flavor as much. I usually blanch my kale in hot water then freeze it. It works great and there's hardly any kale taste when you add it to smoothies.

I like using coconut water also, so yummy with mango and pineapple! I have started throwing spinach into all of my smoothies! It doesn't have to be green in color to be healthy! Just another way to add in a cup of veges and no one in my house can tell!

I tried the other green smoothie a couple of weeks back and the spinach didn't "grind" up completely and there were stringy bites of it in the smoothie. Is this something you have encountered or was it because I was using a cheaper blender that didn't blend very well?

I just use what is available - never measuring. Pineapple, strawberries, grapes,blueberries, pears, oranges, kiwi, mango, banana..add almond milk or coconut water or a bit of any kind juice. Sweetener of choice or fruit is naturally sweet. Add flaxseed, yogurt and protein powder. Plus spinach and ice.

I didn't add the shredded coco bc of the sugar, but I added about 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and 2 tsp of stevia and it is amazing! Can't wait to try the original! I was in the mood for something tropical on this gray rainy Seattle day. :)

I had ^^^ that problem too. I dont have a very good blender. I started putting in my spinach first with some water and mixed that up real good then added everything else and blended somemore. No more grittiness to it!!! Try that.

Has anyone tried making several of these and then putting them in the fridge or freezer? I work crazy hours, but always try to squeeze in some time on elliptical (don't want to loose time on that to make one). If so how long did they last?

Like many people, I was not really confident that this smoothie was the way for me to go but I love tropical flavors so I gave it go! It was great. AND my 3 year old loves it too - and he doesn't eat veggies so I love that I can sneak some in on him this way. I will admit my husband told me if I make one for him, I need to add some sweetener because he felt it a little bit of a bite to it but I loved it for the purpose that I wanted it for - a healthy breakfast!!

This was delicious. I didnt have coconut milk or shredded coconut, but I did have organic coconut oil.

I dont like yougurt so omitted that & just put in:

some water, some canned pineapple chunks, a fistful of spinach, a scoop of my banana protein powder, 3-4 ice cubes and roughly a tbls of organic coconut oil & this was DELICIOUS.I have a Vitamix and yes, its pricey, but theres really no other way to go for green smoothies and soups.

THANK YOU GINA for the base recipe--wonderful as are all your recipes-you are amazing!!!!

This was AMAZING! My 7 year old son is losing weight enough for the docs to worry and he is the MOST PICKY eater so getting him to eat anything, much less anything good for him, is near impossible! I made this for myself the other day and he was intrigued at the spinach in it. I never in a million years though he'd actually want any but I convinced him to take a taste...he loved it and I had to make another batch of smoothies. He's had one everyday since!

I make a smoothie like this every morning! This morning I actually used "tropical fruit mix" as opposed to my usual 4 berry mix and it was amazing! I never thought of adding coconut! I will definitely add that tomorrow. Thank you!

Had one of these for breakfast this morning. It was delicious. My daughter only drank half of hers (not a big breakfast eater), but she liked it too. I had to throw in a little truvia because she likes things teeth achingly sweet, but it's worth it to get some spinach into her. But there's a problem, I'm kind of starving again already. Have to do something about that.

On an unrelated to smoothies note, I want to thank you so much for this site! I'm not on WW (although I did it very successfully years ago), but this site has been incredibly useful. I'm using My Fitness Pal, so having all the calorie info so handy has been fantastic. Most of your recipes are already in the MFP databank, so it's incredibly convenient. But above all, the recipes are great! Thanks so much!

If you're up for a little variety with your greens, bok choy is a wonderful leafy green that is very mild in flavor, extremely low cal, and packed with vitamins and antioxidants. When I make a smoothie I just break off a whole stalk and toss it in the blender. I freeze my bananas, too. I made one yesterday with one banana, one green apple (no peel), one stalk of bok choy, two tablespoons of plain yogurt, and a small handful of blueberries. I also tossed some ice in there to make it colder. Completely delicious, and it made enough for two. I just stuck the leftovers in the fridge, so that's breakfast this morning!

Almond milk is high in protein..I make my own in my Blendtec. I had a Vitamix but did'nt like that plunger. With the Blendtec you just throw anything in there and push one button and and it stops automatically. With any blender put liquids in first..then solids..then ice. Coconut oil must be cold-pressed organic to be really good for you. It is a good type of fat to ingest, rub on your skin or put on your hair as a treatment.

This was a very interesting smoothie to east for the first time! My 3 tree old wouldn't try it at first because the sink when we processes it, but afterwards it didn't and it tastes pretty good. The pineapple flavor was pretty weak. Could this be because I use canned? I can't use fresh due to allergies, but maybe there is another way to enhance it.

This is very good! the banana is the dominant flavor so you can't taste the spinach at all. I used freshly frozen spinach & Pineapple cubes. So Delicious fresh coconut milk, a tablespoon of flaxseed, protein powder & Nutiva organic Coconut Oil. It was so thick and creamy i didn't need the Greek Yoghurt. Thanks for a great tasty Shake!

Try putting the spinach at the bottom of the blender. If your blender isn't very powerful, I'd suggest blending the spinach with the liquid first so it can blend thoroughly before adding in the frozen fruits & yogurt.

I make these quite often and see lots of questions about how to store the second serving. This recipe does not keep well in the fridge for more than 12 hours, I have found that the spinach starts to get bitter. It's not undrinkable, but definitely not as good.

I like to make several servings at a time and freeze single servings in small ziploc baggies. When I want a smoothie, I take the bag out of the freezer and let it sit in a bowl of hot water for about 15 minutes. That is usually enough time to warm the smoothie enough to unfreeze. I have left servings in my freezer for up to 3 weeks, and this method allows the smoothie to still taste fresh when unfrozen. Hope this helps!

I made this this morning and used dairy free yogurt (cultured coconut milk) instead of the yogurt so the whole thing was dairy free. I also used a frozen banana instead of fresh to make it creamier. I thought it tasted really good and I would make it again.

I decided to make this the other day but I didn't have shredded coconut, the coconut milk or the greek yogurt on hand. However, I did have the WW Creamy Coconut Smoothie Mix so I used that to sub for what was missing and it came out great! I would definitely make it again. Thanks for sharing the recipe. Next time I'll play around with the portions of fruit or maybe even add in some mango. Yum!